“It’s remarkable how many games against Colorado are being decided in the last minutes of the matches.”

Overall thoughts on the match …

“I think it’s really important that we continue to find our confidence defensively. I don’t remember Colorado having something that was really, really dangerous against us tonight, so I think we have to feel good about what went into things on that side of the ball.”

On Espindola’s last-minute goal…

“I’m really, really pleased when somebody that works so extremely hard is the one that ends up being able to make the difference at the end of the game. Fabian, for me, could be the man of the match. He just worked so extremely hard to track things down and win second balls off of defenders, so it was good to see that he got it.”

On the abundance of offside calls …

“I think that lvaro [Saborio] and Fabian [Espindola] were just on the razor’s edge. I would never want to discourage them from being that close … that’s a striker’s job.”

REAL SALT LAKE FORWARD FABAN ESPNDOLA

On scoring the winning goal:

“The ball bounced off of Paulo [Jr.] and it was pretty much in. I just had to stretch a little to push it in.”

On the energy he has been putting into matches:

“Not many people remember the effort that one puts into every play, only the goals that you score. For a striker it is always very frustrating when you can’t put the ball into the net, but when your efforts end in a goal, it gives you a huge satisfaction. Goals are a way of life for a striker.”

Overall thoughts on the match:

“The game was very well fought. [Colorado] came out playing very well, but we were home and we needed to push the whole game. They played very well, but the best chances on goal came from us.”

REAL SALT LAKE GOALKEEPER NICK RIMANDO

On the weather conditions affecting the match:

“The ball was slick and moving everywhere. The wind carried the ball in different directions, and it was tough kicking the ball in the wind. We wanted to keep the ball on the ground, and we did it better in the second half.”

On RSL’s fourth win in as many regular season affairs:

“This is the way we wanted to start, jump out early and get points, especially with the CONCACAF tournament [ongoing].”

REAL SALT LAKE CAPTAIN KYLE BECKERMAN

On RSL conceding only one goal in four MLS matches in 2011:

“We pay attention to the little details and try to stay switched on. It seems that sometimes throw-ins or free-kicks will decide the outcome of a game, so we’ll keep doing that.”

COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH GARY SMITH

On the RSL goal:

“The guys are telling me that the ball hit the post, it came back and ricocheted off one of their players and they had some offside players. It would be disappointing if the game was settled on that sort of note.”

On the manner of officiating in tonight’s match:

“I thought the referee was fabulous throughout the game. I want to give him some real credit — they don’t always get a lot of credit — but I’m very interested to see the final goal.”

COLORADO RAPIDS GOALKEEPER MATT PICKENS

On the way Colorado played throughout the game:

“I thought that we played very well. I thought that we came in to win the game, and we were playing that way all the way up until the end.”

On what Colorado takes out of the game:

“It kind of hurts right now. I think that what we are going to take out of it is a good road performance for us. I felt like we should have got something out of that game. We came here and we played, unlike last week [against Dallas].”